Clarification to last month's article, "Retiring Early? Don't Make This Mistake:"

There was some confusion among PBF retirees after last month's pension article, "Retiring Early? Don't Make This Mistake."

PBF payments made to those retiring early do not increase after reaching age 65. Only those taking regular retirement or on disability are eligible for full payments. Early retirees' PBF payments (between ages 62 and 64) are permanently reduced.

See reprinted article in this issue. Visit IBEW.org/links and click 'PBF FAQs' for more information.

In 2009, then-President Barack Obama said the future of electricity was the smart grid.

Nearly 10 years later that future is now. A combination of new technology, new software, regulations and business models is creating tens of thousands of new jobs in one of the most highly unionized industries in North America.

"Unlike any time since 1900, the world's energy system is in play," said professor David Victor of the University of California, San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy.

Part one of this series about the future of the electrical industry ("Everything About the Electrical Industry is Changing," Dec. 2017) covered the generation business, a transformation that is echoing loudly on the delivery side as well.

Monopoly utilities were once considered dinosaurs. But these new technologies, along with new business models and new regulations, are putting them at the center of some of the most progressive parts of the digital economy, including the electrification of cars, ports and trains, microgrids and virtual power plants, demand response, distributed energy generation and even driverless cars.

In the middle sits the North American power grid, the most complex machine created in human history. Each day, it is asked to do things it wasn't designed for while barely keeping up with its original job. Where it is keeping up, it is old and often congested. Too often, it's in the wrong place entirely.

Over the next several decades, billions of dollars will be spent bringing the transmission and distribution system into the 21st century and the skilled construction and utility line workers of the IBEW are perfectly placed to benefit from this once in a generation gold rush.

"There has never been a better time to be a union lineman," said Ray Kasmark, director of the IBEW Business Development Department. "But when this wave of work is done, will we look back and see that the majority of electrical workers gained or lost? Will we grow enough to match the size of the opportunity, or will working men and women have missed out? It all depends on what happens in the next few years."

New Generation, New Jobs

North America is in the middle of a decadeslong transmission system overhaul. Utilities and independent transmission companies have invested nearly $140 billion in new transmission lines since 2010, according to the Edison Electric Institute.

A significant driver of that investment was the focus of Part 1: the closure since 2002 of 11 percent of traditional central station power plants, primarily coal, and the opening of renewable and natural gas plants.